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Vanilla Garlic is my nifty food blog that I tinker at with essays about life and food that I like to think are humorous or thoughtful. I also work as a freelance writer and a cookbook author. Whether I succeed at any of this debatable.

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Saturday, December 29, 2007

So this was the first recipe in out of grandma's recipe boxes. I had some bananas about to go funky, so I figured they would be perfect all mashed up into a cookie. The recipes seemed simple enough and I figured that with the spices and maybe some pecans or chocolate it would be a perfectly delectable cookies.

I did however discover something that would hinder me. Grandma's knowledge of the recipe. The card had no indication of the heat or time for baking. "Well... fuck." That being the first thought to enter my head, I figured to just wing it, as what other choice did I have? I decided on 350F (everything bakes at that temp. it seems) and would watch them like a hawk for the baking time.

I also split the batch into three mixtures - plain, with pecans, with chocolate. All three were fantastic, though I think I prefer them with the pecans for no other reason then I like the crunch they give. The cookies themselves were nice, soft, and a bit cakey. I expected them to taste like banana bread or muffins, but to my surprise they tasted nothing like them; just a delicious spiced cookie flavored with fresh banana.

All and all, delicious and a cookie recipe that's sure to be a steadfast favorite in this house.Grandma Capune's Banana CookiesMakes about 30 cookies / 350F

Oooh, thanks for posting this. I need a new cookie in my arsenal and I have bananas going south (and I can only eat so much banana bread!).

I have the same problem with some of my grandmothers' and great-grandmothers' recipes. Some were concocted before ovens had even temperatures. Others show measurements in price! (use 3 cents worth of sugar) They're fun to read but I can't think of any way to accurately figure out how much that is. :(

I can so relate to having Grandma recipes lacking in the specifics that many of us have come to depend on. I really don't think my grandmother even used recipes -- a list of ingredients was about all she needed. When I would ask her about amounts, her response was along the lines of "Oh, a little bit of this or that, you know, as much as is needed." She cooked entirely by feel, but mere mortals like myself need the boring details, so thanks for including them here. I can't wait to try these cookies!

Hmmmm...I have some bananas that are about to turn to mush as well. And I love, love, love that you're going through your grandmother's recipe box--how cool is that? There's nothing like an old recipe card to make you feel close to the ones you love.

Thank you for a wonderful recipe Garrett!! They were a big hit. I made the dough with pecans and half way through baking added chocolate chips. We are hard pressed to choose which we liked better.I love old recipes, if I can actually recreate them that is :). I have a collection of my late Grandmother's that an Aunt had made into a little book. I was so excited to have her wonderful Bread Pudding recipe I had always adored. When I looked it up, this is what I found. "Break up bread. Beat up an egg, add vanilla, salt, sugar and cinnamon, some raisins. Pour warm milk. Bake for about an hour in a 325 oven" I guess this will be one for memory only. But every time I see it I can't help but smile :)

I have a bunch of bananas happily getting incredibly overripe on the kitchen counter. I'd planned to finally make some Yip Yap Banana Snaps for the dogs (how can you not want to make something called Yip Yap Banana Snaps?), but I've just rethought that decision. This recipe sounds wonderful, and, well, sometimes cookies for people just have to come first! ; )

Yum. Rosie's Bakery Chocolate-Packed Jam-Filled Butter-Rich No-Holds-Barred Cookie Book has a very similar recipe except that it tops each cookie with cream cheese frosting. I made them for the holidays and they were delectable.

I love good old family recipes! (the reason I started food blogging myself)These were wonderful cookies, I added in some chocolate chips. Even the Husband ate some! (that means the recipe's a keeper!)Thanks!

After an extreme hankering for something banana, I remembered your grandma's cookie recipe. My first batch is done and my question is, are these suppossed to be cookie-like or muffin top like. I'm not sure if I did something wrong....or RIGHT! They're totally hitting the spot, but I was thinking cookie..any suggestions?

I tried these yesterday and they came very well. for the flour - I used part whole spelt and part WW pastry flout 1:1 ratio and they were very soft!! DH and DD have been eating these cookies for breakfast!!!

I have hijacked this recipe and we love it so much we let bananas get old and soft on purpose so we can make more. Mods - add chocolate chips and nuts, 3/4 cup each; double the cinnamon and add 2 tsp vanilla extract to the batter. Holy Moly! I posted it on Facebook and my friends are raving.

Today I ended up with some slightly smashed bananas because of my roommate's unorthodox style of grocery bag packing in his trunk. Your recipe looked so yummy and I figured it would be the best way to salvage them. Besides, already had the ingredients in the cupboard...haha!

These are soooooooo good! They taste like banana-nut bread in cookie for. So weird and delicious. Thanks for sharing such a yummy recipe!

Wondering if you might edit the editorial, remove the cussing. I myself will not use this recipe, be back to this site, or say anything good about Vanilla Garlic. Would your Grandma have appreciated your vocabulary?

Anonymous: First, the cussing doesn't affect the recipe, so I am not sure I follow there. Second, I rarely do cuss on this blog, but it is my blog. You came to me. If you don't like the rare swear feel free to go somewhere else. Plus, my Grandmother cussed like a sailor and could kick my ass while doing it. ;)

If you do visit again, please sign your name to your comment and own it. Kthanksbye.

I just started my first food blog a couple days ago and I just a little too excited about it. So when I woke up to over ripe bananas this morning I decided to search for a cookie recipe and scrolled past all the usual food websites to find a recipe that someone has blogged about. I can see already that this could turn a to an addiction (the whole blog thing...not the cookies, although they look fab!). Anyway, can't wait to try the recipe with my boys today. Thanks!!

There were two things that led me to your recipe..over ripe bananas and a upcoming bake sale. Your grandma's recipe is similiar to another I found, but I think this is the one I'm going to try. Also....I find it humurous that you left in the f-bomb...I drop them all the time when I'm baking!!

That being said, thank you for posting this recipe! I am so delighted with the outcome. I will say I was ready to use butter/margarine (I use 50/50 of each usually...for frugality's sake), but I noticed someone mentioned you "changed the recipe" a bit and you said it's because you never have shortening on hand. Well, I made it with the shortening, and say what one may about the decline in quality or whatever for that choice, but shortening is much cheaper for me, and the results were delightful...which (the latter part) is what it's all about, imo!! So thanks thanks thanks again!

What I really came to say though: is that upon seeing your description of these as "cakey" I wondered if I might be able to finagle things so that I could replicate these soft top cookies the Kroger (Mid-west grocery chain) Bakery makes. So I first used an ice cream scooper to dollop the dough, and they weren't big enough, but they were just as thick. Then I used a 1/3 cup measuring cup to make the dollops which ended up being bigger than I wanted. The baking times needed to be increased, so I just added 2 or 3 minutes at a time until they were the right color. Then I was about out of dough.

I also noticed that the cookies don't really spread, although they do rise, so I did just a little bit of spreading by hand (this dough can be handled a *little* bit by hand (or else it just turns into a mess...for me anyway) before baking).

This recipe produces EXACTLY the soft top cookie I was looking to replicate--perhaps better due to fresher ingredients and ingredients closer to their natural state. Next time (!!!) I'll go with the 1/4 cup measuring cup with a little bit of hand shaping, and I'll probably get a dozen or more--which is just what I'm going for. The cookies I'm trying to replicate are about 3-3 1/2 inches across and about 1-1 1/4 inches thick at their thickest.

I'm also going to try this with pumpkin by simply replacing the banana with pumpkin and probably adjusting the quantities of flavor/spices :)

Hey, you're leaving a comment! That's pretty darn cool, so thanks. If you have any questions or have found an error on the site or with a recipe, please e-mail me and I will reply as soon as possible.~Garrett